Scarlett O’Flaherty’s photographs focus on social documentary and slow-journalism

Photographer Scarlett O’Flaherty just graduated from the University of Plymouth, and despite being based in the South West her lens stretches across the north of England and Europe. Her developed style, “focuses on a social documentary practice and slow-journalism through an anthropological approach,” she tells It’s Nice That.

Scarlett takes time with each of her projects, creating images that are poised and carefully curated as a group. Each project is relatively small in number – a series of the photographer’s is usually around eight final images – but each singular image has been refined to make it in the batch.

One project, Powolani przez Boga “is a documentation of the feminine adoration of God that explores beyond a superficial perspective of women’s role in the Catholic Church,” she explains. In the series, Scarlett seeks “to understand what makes these women give their lives to God,” documenting the Felician Franciscan Congregation. “The sisters display an inner contentment that many in contemporary society would envy. This comes from the belief that they have been called by God,” she says. “The calling and dedication to the church is not tangible, some would argue that the presence of God does not exist, however for the women of the Felician Franciscan Congregation it determines their path through life.” Scarlett’s use of light in the series adds an ethereal edge to the images, but the spaces and personalities of the congregation are documented as affable, rather than daunting.

Another project by the photographer, Coal Dust and The White Rose, is a further example of Scarlett using her camera to document social commentary. “The miners’ strike of 1984 was a defining moment in Margaret Thatcher’s attempt to destroy the power of the trade union movement,” she explains. Despite being a topic regularly explored within photography and graphic design, the photographer’s documentation of the miners strike, documenting it in context to the present day, applies a fresh approach. “What has become the most bitter dispute in modern industrial history continues to resonate today and shaped the lives of those involved. Coal Dust and The White Rose is a collective memory of the men from the South Yorkshire coalfield.”

In photographer Grégory Michenaud’s ongoing project he explores Jewish identity, which takes him on a journey inside religion, family values and history. The project is inspired by an old Jewish tradition that’s not practised anymore, called “Yibbum” or levirate marriage, and it obliges the oldest surviving brother of a man who dies childless to marry the widow of his childless deceased brother.

If you Google image search Curacao, a Dutch island in the Caribbean, you’re met with a landscape of white sandy beaches sitting next to rows of pastel coloured architecture. The combination isn’t common, but as photographer Gilleam Trapenberg explains, “Curacao is an island of paradoxes”.

By toying with light and texture, photographer Marta Serrano’s latest series Enter my Dreams depicts the sensual existence of an intimate world presented through the lens. Each image tells a soft and poetic narrative that resonates with us all, leaving a sense of familiarity, wonder and empathy towards a male stranger.

Photographer Anna Beeke’s series At Sea is an ongoing exploration of American cruise culture. “The once romantic notion of travelling the ocean to distant lands has become an accessible and affordable way to vacation, with more and more people taking to the seas each year,” says Anna. “Cruising is the fastest growing sector of the tourism industry worldwide – this project takes a lighthearted look at what it is like to be a passenger on board these floating hotels and the places to which they take us.”

When photographer Michael Bodiam and sculptor Andrew Stellitano set out to collaborate, Michael happened to be reading In Praise of Shadows by iconic Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. “It’s a short read but it’s packed with fascinating and inspiring observations,” Michael describes. “For me, the most captivating are when he explains how and why the beauty of certain surfaces, materials and objects can become elevated when viewed in near darkness.”

Russia-born photographer Nadia Sablin uses the medium to investigate “the relationship between documentary and fictional storytelling and explores the larger world through close personal narratives”. An example of this is Together and Alone a poignant series she completed as a graduate thesis project while studying an MFA at Arizona State University. The result is a series of photographs that stunningly document life in a way that is familiar, but still leave you with a sense of something peculiar.